Adieu, Mr. Lee Kuan Yew

Lee Kuan Yew, who transformed the tiny outpost of Singapore into one of Asia's wealthiest and least corrupt countries as its founding father and first prime minister, died on Monday at 91. He was in his final years more than a myth in the global intellectual arena. His death, at the Singapore General Hospital, was announced by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, Mr. Lee's eldest son.
Mr. Lee was prime minister from 1959, when Singapore gained full self-government from the British, until 1990, when he stepped down. Late into his life he remained the dominant personality and driving force in what he called a First World oasis in a Third World region.
Since Singapore separated from Malaysia in 1965 - an event Mr. Lee called his "moment of anguish" - he had seen himself in a never-ending struggle to overcome the nation's lack of natural resources, a potentially hostile international environment and a volatile ethnic mix of Chinese, Malays and Indians.
His "Singapore model" included centralised power, clean government and economic liberalism. But it was also criticised as a soft form of authoritarianism, suppressing political opposition, imposing strict limits on free speech and public assembly, and creating a climate of caution and self-censorship. The model has been studied by leaders elsewhere in Asia, including China, and the subject of many academic case studies.
Lee Kuan Yew, who was sometimes known by his English name, Harry Lee, was born in Singapore on September 16, 1923, to a fourth-generation, middle-class Chinese family. He worked as a translator and engaged in black market trading during the Japanese occupation in World War II, then went to Britain, where he earned a law degree in 1949 from Cambridge University. In 1950 he married Kwa Geok Choo, a fellow law student from Singapore. She died in 2010.
After serving as prime minister from 1959 to 1990, Mr. Lee was followed by two handpicked successors, Goh Chok Tong and Lee Hsien Loong. Groomed for the job, the younger Mr. Lee has been prime minister since 2004.
Besides the prime minister, Mr. Lee is survived by his younger son, Lee Hsien Yang, who is the chairman of the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore; a daughter, Dr. Lee Wei Ling, who runs the National Neuroscience Institute; a younger brother, Suan Yew; and a younger sister, Monica. Ho Ching, the wife of the prime minister, is executive director and chief executive of Temasek Holdings, a government holding compLee said that he was not a religious man and that he dealt with setbacks by simply telling himself, "Well, life is just like that." Mr. Lee maintained a careful diet and exercised for most of his life, but he admitted to feeling the signs of age and to a touch of weariness at the self-imposed rigour of his life.
"I'm reaching 87, trying to keep fit, presenting a vigorous figure, and it's an effort, and is it worth the effort?" he once said. "I laugh at myself trying to keep a bold front. It's become my habit. So I just carry on." What a legend he is? Adieu, Mr Lee."
The writer is a graduate student of English at Dhaka College, Dhaka.
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